India is looking to stem-cell and nanotechnology research, among other scientific endeavours, to help it achieve its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2020, according to the country's former president, Dr. Abdul Kalam.

Sen. Charles Schumer is planning to announce what he called a 'landmark agreement' that will create a partnership between the federal government and the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering.

On April 14th, the Swiss Retailer's Organisation among whose members are the most important actors in the Swiss Retailing such as Migros, Coop, Denner, Manor, and Valora, published a Code of Conduct for the handling of nanotechnology in consumer products. In the Code, the members commit to highest possible transparency for consumers and to the application of the precautionary principle in the face of a lack of specific legal rulings.

New pilot phase data shows that iron nanoparticles can detect lymph node metastases in a highly sensitive and specific manner in patients with renal cell carcinoma, which accounts for some 20% of kidney cancers.

Using nanoparticles designed specifically to produce a bright Raman spectroscopic signal, a team of investigators has shown that it can produce whole-body images in small animals that can reveal the location of tumors and track how these nanoparticles traffic through the body.

Three recently published papers highlight the progress developing a new use for perfluorocarbons: as the building blocks for nanoparticles capable of delivering a wide range of imaging agents and drugs to tumors.

The new material, a superlattice, which has a multilayer structure composed of alternating atomically thin layers of two different oxides, possesses properties radically different to either of the two materials by themselves.